After both the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning had more than enough time to prepare for the start of the Eastern Conference finals you’d imagine that both teams would want to get out fast and on the right foot. The Lightning did their part and then some in earning a 5-2 victory over the Bruins to take a 1-0 series lead.

Tampa got off to as quick and destructive of a start as you could want from a team as they scored three goals in a 1:25 span in the middle of the first period to grab a 3-0 lead they wouldn’t look back from the rest of the night. Tampa’s surprising goal scoring hero Sean Bergenheim got the Lightning ahead with his NHL playoff-leading eighth goal.

Just 19 seconds later, Brett Clark would score to make it 2-0. Just over a minute after that Teddy Purcell would make it 3-0 leading to a Bruins timeout, but the damage was done. Things would get a bit interesting at the end of the first period as Tyler Seguin, playing in his first game of the playoffs, would score to cut the lead to 3-1 heading into intermission, but from that point on the Bruins couldn’t get anything going at all thanks to the work of Dwayne Roloson.

It wasn’t for a lack of opportunities, however, as the Bruins once again had their chances on the power play. Once again though the Bruins would fail time and time again going 0-4 on the game and looking awful while doing it. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, was able to get one goal on the power play thanks to a boneheaded penalty from Johnny Boychuk in the third period.

Boychuk leveled Simon Gagne with a heavy, clean hit when he was intercepted by Vincent Lecavalier. Lecavalier had some words for Boychuk when Boychuk hit him in the face with a gloved punch. Boychuk headed off and it would be Marc-Andre Bergeron who would snipe one past Tim Thomas to make it 4-1 Tampa Bay and help send fans to the exits with 6:23 to play. Simon Gagne added an empty net goal to make it 5-1 and Boychuk would attempt to redeem himself a bit after scoring a goal off a Lightning defenders’ skate but that would be all they’d get.

For Tampa Bay you couldn’t ask for a better game. The three goal outburst in the first period put the Bruins in an uncomfortable hole and despite all you might believe about the three goal lead in the playoffs, it’s not a position any team wants to be in. Getting production from all the guys the Lightning did reaffirms everything they’ve been doing all playoffs in getting scoring from just about anyone. You can’t zero in on one line and hope for the best as their third line is working just as well to score as their first and second lines. Getting that sort of production all over makes matchups for Claude Julien even harder.

Boston, meanwhile, has some questions to answer in their own locker room. The power play continues to be an abject nightmare and fully incapable of giving the Bruins the ability to make opponents pay for their mistakes. There’s only so much Tim Thomas can do to keep things buckled down and at some point the Bruins need to seize the day with the man advantage. His stop tonight on Steve Downie tonight is the kind of magic you can expect from Thomas, but leaving him having to do everything puts the B’s in a tough spot.

The Bruins also had issues on faceoffs as David Krejci had a nightmarish evening going 3-18 in the circle. He’s the top center on the top scoring line and controlling the puck off the bat is a vital need. Any of Lecavalier, Dominic Moore, and Nate Thompson had a field day as each of them won better than 60% of their faceoffs. Fortunately for Boston, they can forget about this game and just get ready for Game 2 and even things up. If they don’t figure some things out, however, they could be staring in the face of heading to Tampa Bay down 0-2.